Help with Computer Drum Tracks

[ido1957]

I write my drum tracks in Cakewalk. Then I play them on the computer (Compaq Presario) and record them through the headphone jack onto a cassette deck. Then I play the cassette deck through my mixer and play along with it. I record that onto another tape deck ( 4 or 8 Track).

My friend has a Yamaha PSR550 keyboard which you can load the drum tracks into via floppy disk. When you play the drum track it sounds 1000% better than the sound I am getting through my computer. The Yamaha has several drum kits to choose from.

Is there a drum machine that will take floppy disks and play them back.

The only thing I have seen is midi <in/out> on drum machines. My computer doesn't have midi out and I can't see where a card with midi will fit - no slots.

Is there an external "card" out there that connects through USB maybe that contains better sounds which I can then record on tape.

Although it would be nice to get a PSR550 I don't play keyboards so I am trying to save money by getting just the drum piece.

[Theros]

Sorry if this may not be the answer you were looking for, but...

Why record the drums from your PC to a tape deck (thus diminishing the quality to tape) when you could use a direct connection to the mixer? (assuming you could use 1/8 jacks on your mixer or you could convert to whatever your mixer accepts)...

Saves alot on time if you wouldnt have to record then replay... and you would have better quality...

My 2 pennies worth...

[ido1957]

Thanks Theros - that is an excellent observation which I neglected to cover in my post. My computer is not in the same room as my mixer/music equipment and I cannot move it there (for variety of reasons).

Although there is a good deal of degradation recording from computer to tape then to mixer, the drum sounds generated by the sound card in my computer are not very high quality and I am looking for a "better sounding" drum kit.

Thanks again!